Sports Psychology and its Application to Personal and Professional Life
You may have already read elsewhere on our website that “our expertise comes from a unique blend of systems-thinking, sports psychology and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).” You may be thinking: “What has sports psychology got to do with organisational life and how does this all work alongside systems thinking and NLP?”
Well, once we understand what it is that our clients are hoping to achieve, we will apply the most appropriate principles, techniques or strategies from one or more of these particular disciplines in order to our clients the greatest chance of achieving their desired outcome.
And so, whilst many of you may already be familiar with the area of systems-thinking or NLP, the idea of having a sports psychologist work with you in an organisational setting might appear at first to be a little strange. It may therefore be useful to explain a little more about what sports psychology is, and how it can be applied to a business setting…
First of all, psychology is commonly defined as “the scientific study of mental processes and behaviour”. Sports Psychology – a specific branch of psychology – is the “scientific study of people and their behaviour in sport and exercise contexts and the practical application of that knowledge”.
Whilst that may, on the face of it, appear to be a very academic description – the important aspect of that previous sentence is “the practical application of that knowledge”. Sports psychologists have, for over a hundred years now, been trying to understand what makes people perform better in sport. Over this period, sports psychologists have been particularly interested in finding out what it is that elite sports people do that make them elite. A large body of knowledge, understanding and scientific evidence now exists in this area. Sports psychologists have explored and documented a wide range of factors that can help determine success or failure in a particular sporting context.
And here’s the really interesting bit … many of the skills that make an elite sports person elite:
1) Can be transferred to other contexts, and
2) Can be learned.
In short, a sports psychologist will use their knowledge and understanding of psychological theory in these areas and research to understand the variety of issues an individual or team may be facing (perhaps to do with motivation, goal setting and a variety of other recognised mental skills). They will then apply this knowledge to enhance the performance and wellbeing of the individuals they are working with.
Sport Psychologists are also interested in understanding how psychological factors affect an individual’s performance. Whilst most sport psychologists work within a sport context, research has already found that performance in a variety of settings – including performance in business – may be affected by a range of psychological factors .
The sports psychologist will hence work to enhance performance by helping the individual or team develop strategies to manage performance-related anxiety (using this example) – perhaps when an individual may be giving a presentation or working within a sales context. Sports Psychologists can also help people cope with various lifestyle factors that may be affecting their performance and wellbeing in either sport or work.
Hopefully that will go some way to explain what it is that sports psychologists do within an organisational and professional context. Hopefully, you will also begin to understand how some of these principles might overlap rather nicely with our other areas of expertise (including systems-thinking and NLP).
Our aim is not only to ensure that our clients find what works for them … but that we also draw from our extensive knowledge and experience in each of these areas to find out what works for us too.
That is … what combination of techniques, strategies and approaches is likely to give our clients the best possible chance of success?
Tags: anxiety, athlete, elite, elite performance, goal setting, mental skills, motivation, outcome, pre-performance routines, psychology, Sports Psychology, wellbeing
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